With the WTA Finals set to begin on Sunday in Singapore, the women’s game has been minting new No. 1 players at breakneck pace.
In little more than three months, Karolina Pliskova, Garbiñe Muguruza and now Simona Halep have risen to the top spot. They may soon have more company: Seven of the eight singles players competing in Singapore have a mathematical chance to finish the season at No. 1.
That is serious tennis upheaval when you consider that Steffi Graf and Serena Williams each once held the top spot for 186 consecutive weeks.
But this has been a season of shifting sands and momentum — due in large part to Williams’s maternity leave that began after she won the Australian Open, her 23rd major singles title, in January when she was pregnant.